Insecticide



I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANDREW H. DANFORTH, OF LEOMINS TER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR, BY

DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TU

PANY, OF SACO, MAINE.

-INSEGT,ICIDE".

THE DA NFORTI'I. CHEMICAL COM- SPECIFIGATIO N t'orming part of .Letters'Patent No. 578,862, dated March 16, 1897.

' Application filed Kay 23, 1896. Serial N e-692,862. (N specimens.)

To all whomit may concern:

Be it known that I, ANDREW H. DANFO'RTH, residing in Leominster, county of Worcester, andStateof ltIassachusett's, have invented an Improvement in Bug Extermina'tors, of which the following. description is a specification.

' This invention relates to'a novelcomposition to be,used as an exterminator of potato and other bugs now so destructiveto vegetable plants and vines.

-Prior to-thisinvention I am aware that paris-gre'en has been used to prevent the ravages of potato-bugs'a id like insects, but

this has been found infpr'actice notto be wholly effective for. the'pu'rpose specified,

' and is further objectionable on account of the injury to the plants and vines, and also asa source of danger both to human and animal life; My invention has for its object to provide a composition which is normally passive, but which when applied to the plant or vine and exposed to the atmosphere becomes active and forms a deadly poison for the'bug and at the 2 5 same time a food for the plant or vine,'so that the composition serves a twofold.purposeas an exterminator for the bugs and-insects and as a food for the plant. 1:

My improved composition is composed, es-, 3o sentially, ota metallic oxid and a saltof ammonia, preferably oxid of zinc and ammonium chlorid, which bodies, in powdered or dried 'form,jare mixed'together with the zinc oxid in excess and this mixture is applied to the 3 5 vines or plants, andin a substantially short time after exposure to the atmosphere a re- 7 action takes place, which forms zinc chlorid,

freeammonia, and water. be expressed as follows:

. J The zinc chlorid is the destructive agent for the bugs,.&c., and any injurious action it might have upon the plant is more than 0&- set by the beneficial action of the free ammonia, the nitrogen of which is absorbed by the plantar vine and constitutes a food therefor, tho-hydrogen being set free.

Practical demonstration has proven the fact that the composition referred to when applied tothe plants becomes fatal to the bugs and insects and of benefit to the plants. I prefer to manufacture the composition with the zinc oxid in excess of the chlorid of am.-

monia, and have obtained excellent results with a mixture of ninety-five percent. of the zinc oxid and five per cent. of the ammonium chlorid, but I do not desire to limit my invention to the precise proportions stated, as a larger percentage of the chlorid may be used.

I claimp As ani n rotted article of manufacture, a bug-exterminator consisting of a composition of zinc oxid and ammonium chlorid the zinc oxid beingin excess of the ammonium chlorid, substantially as and forthe pni'pose specified.

-In testimony whereofIhave'signed my name to this specification in the presence'of two subscribing witnesses 1 ANDREW H. DANFOBTH.

This reaction may Witnesses:

JAS. H. CHURCHIL J. liitnirnir. 

